Today the casual games developer and publisher PlayFirst announced the addition of Mitali Pattnaik to its executive team as General Manager of Social Games. Pattnaik will oversee PlayFirst's first social gaming initiatives, which will include games developed for Facebook and other social network platforms.
Pattnaik comes to PlayFirst from Electronic Arts's social gaming division, where she lead marketing and monetization efforts. She also directed online marketing efforts for EA's The Sims 3 and oversaw the launch of the game's virtual goods shop, The Sims 3 Store.
"Social platforms are a natural fit for PlayFirst," said PlayFirst CEO, Mari Baker, in a press statement. "We have a history of publishing best-selling games for women, and can mine our catalog of great IP to bring well-known brands to the social platform. We are already seeing a large crossover factor between our traditional PC download customers and those playing on Facebook and we expect this trend to continue."
Prior to her tenure at EA, Pattnaik was Senior Marketing Manager at Yahoo, where she managed worldwide marketing for Yahoo Search and launched Yahoo Video. Given Pattnaik's background at EA, it seems very likely that the PlayFirst social games launched under her management will monetize through virtual goods rather than through a subscription or ad-based model.
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